CMW: The Wednesday Society It's almost bloody impossible to find info on the Perth, Australia-based The Wednesday Society. Google them and all this shit on Sigmund Freud keeps coming up — apparently because the band takes its name from a group of early Viennese psychoanalysts, of whom Freud was one — so we at SoundProof said to hell with Google, and decided to go straight to the source. According to guitarist Ian Berney, The Wednesday Society formed in high school "as nerds in response to our obsession with musical composure." Their goal was to become "the idols that we worshiped," and gradually the foursome made good on their wish. Brendan Jay had a music scholarship in high school (apparently you need scholarships for high school in Australia?) and played with "a handful of bands that lost interest in themselves," says Berney. Jay, The Wednesday Society's drummer, is self-taught and "clearly talented." James Sher and Berney are "musically joined at the hip and have ESP with each other's brain." The band's influences are general: "Basically we like rock music, but we have a huge interest in bands that try to write something completely different, challenging and interesting. We are inspired by unconventional bands, like Les Savy Fav, My Disco, Snowman, Trail of Dead, to name a few." Despite having only released a single, "Red Means Go," The Wednesday Society has nonetheless thrown together a tour EP for their current North American tour and CMW dates called Making New Friends. "This is our first time out of Australia, and we are having a great time. Canada is fantastic and cold. It's 40°C at home, so it was a striking difference for us." It's not only the weather that's unusual for these four guys. Berney describes the music scene in Perth: "It's amazing, but it's also very concentrated and incredibly proud of itself. It survives despite the fact that there are only about 10 venues to play at." Small though it may be, Perth and the rest of the west coast seem to be held in awe by other parts of Australia. "West Australia is responsible for a massive share of the more popular acts in Australia." Sounds like it's high time North America got a taste of Oz. And The Wednesday Society is just the group to give it.